Chapter 21: Audio/Visual Devices^557
Most browsers and video cards support MPEG viewing without additional software,
but many freeware and shareware plug-ins and player applications are available. MPEG
files carry either a MPEG or MPG file extension.QuickTime Movie
QuickTime movies are very popular for video on both CD-ROM and the Internet.
QuickTime is a proprietary digital audio-visual architecture developed by Apple Computer.
Ithasbecomeoneofthemostpopularmultimediaformatsinuseandiswidelysupported.In
fact, Apple reports proudly that many millions of copies of the QuickTime player have been
downloaded to Windows computers (see Figure 21-8).
QuickTime, like AVI, is a series of graphic display interfaces that are used to encapsu-
late supported audio and video file formats with instructions for playback. There are several
different versions of QuickTime, including QuickTime VR (virtual reality) that lets view-
ers navigate in 3D and look around 360 degrees from a fixed point in space. QuickTime
creates good quality video clips in files with reasonable size. QuickTime files carry a
MOV file extension.Figure 21-8. The QuickTime player